Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Sparrows = Rabbits

I have this birdhouse made to look like a cat holding a platter. It used to have a bunch of feathers in its mouth and somewhere on there it said 'what bird?'. It had been hanging in the flower bed, unused, until we moved it to this pine tree in the middle of the back yard. Last year something piled some sticks and twigs in the bottom but never actually made a nest or produced any babies until now!

This year a pair of sparrows finished off the nest and raised a nice little family, and then they did it again, and again, and yet again! That's right, they are on their fourth set. They aren't very shy about it either, no sneaking away into the bushes or into the nest to do their thing; nor do they wait long after the kids have left. This last time I think they waited 10 minutes after kicking the last of the babies out for good before uhhhh.... starting over, right there, in broad daylight, between the cats feet!

They also did a bit of remodeling, and they were a bit overzealous about it too. There is now so much grass stuffed into the box I don't think there will be room enough for everyone when the new chicks hatch out. It's positively overflowing! I wonder if there will be a fifth set? Or if my yard will end up looking like that of Lady Tottington's in Wallace and Gromit only overflowing with sparrows instead of rabbits?